88 acres: A love story and start-up founded on a near-death experience

Monday

Sep 30, 2013 at 6:00 AMSep 30, 2013 at 9:32 AM

By Peter S. Cohan, Wall & Main

Nicole Ledoux loves Rob Dalton (and vice versa). That became very obvious a few years ago when Mr. Dalton nearly died after a dinner date with Ms. Ledoux. Now the two central Massachusetts natives are married and running a startup they founded from the ashes of Mr. Dalton's near-death experience.

As Mr. Dalton, an evening MBA student at Babson College (where I teach) and a coxswain on the Northeastern crew who works at a high tech company, explained in a September 25 interview, "I grew up in Shrewsbury, and my wife, Nicole Ledoux, grew up in North Brookfield on an 88-acre farm. Nicole and I were married this past July, and on September 22, we moved from one major life event to another with the launch of our company. Our start-up, 88 acres (88-acres.com), creates healthy snack foods free of the top eight food allergens, that are crafted with simple ingredients and designed for all to enjoy."

The love story and the near death experience are tied together. As Ms. Ledoux explained, "I grew up on a farm near North Brookfield that grew produce. I left the farm for UMass Amherst, went to Boston and London then earned an MBA from Harvard Business School in 2008 and started a career in finance. Three years ago, I met Rob."

"He was the first person I had met with food allergies and on our fourth date, he almost died," said Ms. Ledoux. "He ordered a meal and the restaurant said it had no nuts. The meal had nuts and his reaction was almost immediate. We were in Boston and I drove him to Beth Israel hospital at 80 miles an hour. They gave him prednisone and epinephrine."

Mr. Dalton chimed in, saying, "Two good things came out of it. First, Nicole met my parents. Second, Nicole and I had our first experience with food allergy reactions. It made us question what were the food options that were safe and that we would enjoy. The next morning I woke up in her place and heard banging and cabinets slamming. Nicole was pouring out walnuts, pistachios and almonds — ridding them from the house."

88 acres — named after the amount of land in Ms. Ledoux's family farm — "grew organically," according to Mr. Dalton.

"We were training for a half Iron Man, and Nicole started tinkering with peanut-free, tree-nut-free granola bars. We passed them out to friends and they passed them out to people they knew. And we built a brand following, and realized we were on to something," he said.

And there is a big market opportunity for their product. According to Mr. Dalton, "Fifteen million people have food allergies in the U.S., and millions more suffer from food sensitivities. Our products are free of the eight allergens that account for 90 percent of allergic reactions."

Ms. Ledoux — who is 88 acres' CEO — described her thinking about getting the company off the ground. As she said, "I started researching what I could feed him that would keep us safe. I found that there was a lack of safe foods and that the ones that were safe were made with quality as an afterthought. Among others, we won a Babson business plan competition that gave us $20,000 in cash and last summer, we got feedback from celebrity chefs — using the feedback to make hundreds of bars. And we have been methodical about our strategy — developing a business plan and talking with entrepreneurs who have experience in the consumer packaged goods industry."

On Sunday September 22, 88 acres launched a Kickstarter campaign, which is an online method of raising funds for a startup that gives "investors" a chance to support the company while in return for its product and other goodies like T-shirts. As Mr. Dalton explained on September 25, "We just reached our $20,000 goal."

If their product is successful, Ms. Ledoux believes it will be hard for big food companies to copy. "We keep our products safe by doing a lot of testing at three levels: Allergens start with suppliers and each of them is thoroughly vetted. Then manufacturers test the raw ingredients for glutens and other allergen proteins. Then there are random tests of the finished product. Larger company would have trouble doing this kind of testing."

Meanwhile, 88 acres is operating out of Boston accelerator MassChallenge.

Mr. Dalton offered his thoughts on the risk that 88 acres might fail.

"We haven't even given a thought to what we will do if 88 acres does not succeed. We've only really ever thought about how we would feel if we didn't try to launch 88 acres. We never want to be in a situation where we look back months or years down the road and wonder what if. And from our perspective, we are making it work. After a lot of time and energy spent, we officially launched our own company, and no matter what happens with 88 acres, we will never wonder what if, and that is the most important thing."

Peter Cohan of Marlboro heads a management consulting and venture capital firm, and teaches business strategy and entrepreneurship at Babson College. His email address is peter@petercohan.com.